Friday, August 5, 2016

Rain Rain Go Away... And Take Your Humidity With You

I guess I sort of owe you a real update about what's been going on this week? Here goes.

Monday I went out and lunged Ruby, and also worked more on TotF in hand -- she's smart enough that she knows what she wants now so the minute I reach my hand up to cue her she steps off. Obviously I appreciate the effort, but she has to actually wait until I CUE her, so we had to work more on that. She was really good otherwise, so I kept it short and sweet. DJ and I had to go help my mom finish fencing a new paddock for her horses, so it was a long night. After checking my weather app, we kicked the horses out for the night -- it was a little muddy, but only a 20% chance of showers.

That 20% chance of showers turned into 7.5 inches of rain in about 8 hours -- don't ask me, I don't get it either. Tuesday was also primary day, so not only did I have to vote on my way to work, I had to turn around several times due to flooded roads, making my commute 1230234823490x more difficult than it needed to be.

Photo by Karen Pautz. Downtown Fulton. That is our roundabout in the background, completely underwater. You can see the upper railing of one of the bridges. Pretty much completely submerged.

A rural highway near my mom's house.

A county road a few miles from us.

The road out to Arrowhead Creek. Obviously I didn't see Ruby Tuesday.

Tuesday night, again, the forecast called for a minimal chance of rain. Guess what? More rain.

Nearby dam that failed, flooding the roads DH takes to work.

48 hour rain totals. On already saturated grounds.

I hate to complain about the rain, because they were forecasting a drought for this summer, but this is getting out of hand! Wednesday I did squeeze in a short ride. Ruby was very attentive, and her canter was about 10x more adjustable, even in the indoor, than it was last week. The footing was a little wet the day we had issues last week, so maybe it was just too slippery? Regardless, she did give me SUPER canter to the left, and acceptable canter to the right. We also worked TotF under saddle a little. I think she's grasping the concept -- we'll check in with dressage instructor next time we're able to take a lesson. Those have been indefinitely postponed for the time being, due to some circumstances out of everyone's control.

Thursday was farrier day at the barn -- there are so many horses that it is split up into two separate lists. Ruby is on the first list, and Cinna is on the second (I trailer her in to be trimmed). Last time Cinna had an appointment, apparently she was a bit of a demon baby. I was with Ruby at the University that day, so my barn manager had to deal with her. Due to the timing of the appointment today, I ended up taking off work, which was for the best, as it meant I could hold her. She gave me a little guff about loading on the trailer (still not her favorite thing), but DH managed to coax her on. We beat the farrier to the barn, and Cinna was drenched in sweat from her shenanigans, so we practiced with the outdoor wash rack. She was actually fairly cooperative once she got over her "OMG SCARY NEW THING. IT WILL EAT ME." schtick that she pulls out anytime I introduce her to something new. I hosed her off, scraped her, and took her back inside. I didn't even want to attempt that in the indoor wash rack, because it's kind of narrow (and apparently terrifying to horses the first time they encounter it), but after we came in, I had more time to kill. So we walked in and out of it a few times and practiced standing (definitely not brave... or stupid?) enough to cross tie her in there yet. Aside from the obnoxiousness trailer loading (which is my fault, she didn't get introduced to it young enough and she's still only been in it like 10 times as a 4.5 year old...), she was REALLY good today! Between her introduction to both wash racks, hanging out quietly in a stall, and then behaving herself for the farrier, I was a proud mama. She balked a tiny bit about getting on the trailer to go home, but I was able to load her alone in less than 10 minutes, without any kind of explosions. I called that a win and celebrated with half a bottle of wine and a Grimm marathon once chores were done.

I didn't think to take any photos, of course, because I was so preoccupied with making sure we didn't have any reversions to demon baby. She's in another growth spurt (the farrier commented), and her butt is currently in a different ZIP code than her withers. Hopefully she will even out soon. This breed grows FORRRRREVER so I have faith, but right now she's a bit on the fugly side. I showed him photos from her working, and he said the saddle camouflages it pretty well (he's right, obviously, haha).

Does this saddle make my ass look high? haha

Anyway -- the absolute DRENCHING we've received this week combined with hot temperatures led to absolutely crippling humidity... for me anyway. I don't tolerate extreme temperatures very well, hot or cold. The good news is that even though it's disgusting now, Jack is continuing to sweat -- I started him on SweatAgain about a week ago and while he's still obviously uncomfortable in the sweltering temperatures we have now, he IS sweating. And he doesn't object to the SweatAgain like he did to the Guiness, so that's a huge relief. I'm hoping to taper him off it in the fall once it cools down, but I'll plan to have it on hand next year to keep him on it during the summer.

Tonight is tack auction night! They didn't have one in July, so hopefully there will be a good turnout tonight! I am not shopping for anything in particular, but I never am, and that rarely stops me from buying things, so perhaps I'll have some fun updates for you next week!

Fun new fly veils that coordinate with outfits and saddle pads... to be debuted soon!

It's always fun when it rains like that (not)... Our only saving grace is the really sandy soil, so we don't really get muddy. Hopefully the weather will chill and spread the moisture out into useful amounts.

We are so dry- we could use a solid week of rain. But not the rain that you are getting. That's the thing with weather- it's never what you want/need!She looks so pretty in her tack who notices the booty? :)

I've been here for about 10 years now (give or take some college summers) and this is definitely the worst I've ever seen it. It's also fairly atypical this late in the year! Sometimes we get rain/flooding like this in the spring, but I don't EVER remember it happening in August! So weird.

About Me

I'm a 30s college graduate living in the Midwest with an amazing husband, a herd of horses, and a pack of dogs. My interests are dressage, photography, and most recently, blogging. I have a self-deprecating sense of humor and the vocabulary of an octogenarian. My life's motto is taken from my favorite book series: Hope strengthens, fear kills.
In case it wasn't glaringly obvious, the title of my blog is tongue-in-cheek.